Politicisation to further weaken local governance
Dhaka: Adviser to former caretaker government Dr Akbar Ali Khan on Thursday said political commitment is a must to strengthen local government institutions apart from providing adequate allocation.
‘Local government is gradually weakening in Bangladesh. No strong and effective step has yet been taken to strengthen it,’ he told a seminar at Spectra Convention Centre in the capital.
BRAC Community Empowerment Programme and The Hunger Project jointly organised the seminar on 'Strengthening Local Governance'.
Akbar Ali, also a former bureaucrat, said if local government is strengthened, development will be accelerated in the marginal areas of the country.
He said the local government bodies should take up development works to prove themselves in implementing those works so that the central government feels that strengthening local government will help it advance the country.
The former bureaucrat also stressed the need for increasing capacity of public representatives to strengthen local government bodies.
Local government expert Dr Tofail said the local government institutions will be weakened as autonomous bodies due to politicisation.
He suggested forming a Local Government Commission to strengthen local government bodies.
Adviser to former caretaker government M Hafiz Uddin, BRAC executive director Dr Mohammad Musa and former global vice president of The Hunger Project Dr Badiul Alam Majumder, among others, spoke at the seminar.